Cravings Whilst Dieting
Every diet, when implemented properly has some kind of restrictions, whether thats a restriction of certain foods or the amount of calories you can consume. With restriction come cravings, cravings for the things you can't have.
Its human nature to want the things you can't have, but when it comes to diet most of us it seems just can't help ourselves. We're now moving into February and its been a month since you promised yourself that you would eat healthily but the reality of it is a Chinese take away has never sounded so tempting.
The problem that I find with the majority of diets today is that they 'ban' certain things and it causes the big red button syndrome amongst people. What I mean by the big red button syndrome is that if somebody tells you don't press the button, the only thing you want to do is press that button. So when somebody tells you that you cannot eat chocolate, the only thing you want is chocolate.
What a lot of dieticians and fitness models fail to tell you is that there is a method of 'dieting' called IIFYM where you can have pretty much anything in moderation, as long as fits in with your macro goals. Macro goals are a percentage breakdown of your diet between carbs, fats and proteins. Personally, I follow the IIFYM diet as I find it allows me to have a better relationship with food and allows me to minimise my cravings as I appreciate that if I want to treat myself I've got to make a change elsewhere in order to hit my goals.
I'm sure there's people out there that will argue with me all day that 'clean eating' is the best form of dieting and that it works well for them and thats great but I find clean eating does not work for me as it increases my cravings for items I can't have such as toast and potatoes. This makes me very sceptical of people following these clean eating diets as they will NEVER show you or admit to 'cheating'. What I mean by cheating is having a meal which contains foods that don't follow the principles of their diet, like a McDonalds for example.
Personally, I don't think theres anything wrong with having a cheat meal once in a while as personally I find it satisfies my cravings and refocuses my energy back into my training. This is because I appreciate that one bad meal isn't going to make a visible difference to your appearance, in the same way that one gym session will not make a difference to your physique.
Remember, if you enjoy your diet you are more likely to stick to it. Look at your plate of food tonight just before you eat, if you can't see yourself eating the meal that you have in front of you in a years time, you are probably on the wrong diet.
Joey G
Its human nature to want the things you can't have, but when it comes to diet most of us it seems just can't help ourselves. We're now moving into February and its been a month since you promised yourself that you would eat healthily but the reality of it is a Chinese take away has never sounded so tempting.
The problem that I find with the majority of diets today is that they 'ban' certain things and it causes the big red button syndrome amongst people. What I mean by the big red button syndrome is that if somebody tells you don't press the button, the only thing you want to do is press that button. So when somebody tells you that you cannot eat chocolate, the only thing you want is chocolate.
What a lot of dieticians and fitness models fail to tell you is that there is a method of 'dieting' called IIFYM where you can have pretty much anything in moderation, as long as fits in with your macro goals. Macro goals are a percentage breakdown of your diet between carbs, fats and proteins. Personally, I follow the IIFYM diet as I find it allows me to have a better relationship with food and allows me to minimise my cravings as I appreciate that if I want to treat myself I've got to make a change elsewhere in order to hit my goals.
I'm sure there's people out there that will argue with me all day that 'clean eating' is the best form of dieting and that it works well for them and thats great but I find clean eating does not work for me as it increases my cravings for items I can't have such as toast and potatoes. This makes me very sceptical of people following these clean eating diets as they will NEVER show you or admit to 'cheating'. What I mean by cheating is having a meal which contains foods that don't follow the principles of their diet, like a McDonalds for example.
Personally, I don't think theres anything wrong with having a cheat meal once in a while as personally I find it satisfies my cravings and refocuses my energy back into my training. This is because I appreciate that one bad meal isn't going to make a visible difference to your appearance, in the same way that one gym session will not make a difference to your physique.
Remember, if you enjoy your diet you are more likely to stick to it. Look at your plate of food tonight just before you eat, if you can't see yourself eating the meal that you have in front of you in a years time, you are probably on the wrong diet.
Joey G
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